Letters to the Editor June 3, 2009

Here’s a suggestion as to how the state parks system can raise a few million dollars and maybe retain some of the staff that would otherwise be laid off due to the budget cuts.

Let dog owners walk their dogs in the state parks. Charge a license fee for the privilege, say $40 or $50 a year.

Tourists who travel with their family pet, an increasing segment of the population, would no doubt be happy to share the redwoods with their canine friends.

Brian Green

Crescent City

We’re lucky to have administration supportive of music education

Today I returned from the last high school Steel Drum concert, played for the senior Safe and Sober event. A few weeks ago the Steel Drum, Jazz and Concert bands performed at Crescent Elk for their finale of the 2008/09 school year.

Both events were great musical treats put on by our high school students, and I could not help but reflect on how lucky our community is to have a strong music program in our district. Music is fading from many (if not most) public school districts across our state. How very sad for those areas; those children and young adults are losing out on experiences that will not be found anywhere else.

Here in Del Norte County we have an administration and staff that support musical programs. Bands and choirs, like sports, give students a place to be, to fit in, to excel and to participate as a team. Music teaches kids math; they have to work together even if they are playing with someone they may not care for; aids physical coordination and is a form of physical exercise. So many good things rolled into art!

That said, I’d like to say thank you to the Del Norte Unified School District administrators and school board for supporting music at all grade levels, and to Dan Sedgwick for joining our high school faculty and teaching our kids. Thank you Dan for the spring music tour where the kids performed for the public in Disneyland, the great music your students played this year and all the early mornings and late nights you spent working with our kids, putting up with all those teens and smiling the whole time.

Joanna Hawley-Jones

Crescent City

Audience recognized amazing

talent, dedication of LRT members

A standing ovation was given to the Lighthouse Repertory Theatre for its “I Wish My Life Were a Musical” fundraising gala Saturday night as cast and crew delighted the audience with the fruits of a performance, which highlighted hit Broadway shows.

More important was that the audience recognized the amazing talent and dedication of the members of the LRT. For such a small community, we are blessed with an incredible group of people willing to give of their time and gifts to grace us with the culture of music and theatre.

Do your part and give a small gift to the Lighthouse Repertory Theatre and help them complete the renovation of the old Red’s Theatre.

Kathryn Murray

Crescent City

Instead of closing parks, state should cut welfare system costs

I think that instead of closing state parks that make our community money, why don’t we cinch the belts on other programs like the “welfare system.”

The welfare system does not help the state. It makes California as a whole weaker. People on welfare should only be allowed to collect long enough to find a job, and that’s it. There should not be third, fourth, and fifth generation of welfare recipients.

They should also have to do community service before they collect any money that us hard-working taxpayers work for. They should also have to pass a mandatory drug test before they get a check. That would crack down on all this unnecessarily spent money.

It is a shame that a lot, not all, of the community of welfare recipients use drugs, but there is a large group that do. With the money that we would save on paying welfare, we could help out our country and not hurt us. There would be enough money to keep our parks open, and with the community service being done we can beautify California and draw more tourists.

It would help our budget, and get our country out of this big mess that we are in. Arnold Schwarzenegger needs to get his priorities in order, and go back to making movies.

Lisa Camarena

Crescent City

For dog owners, state parks in California are virtually no use

In response to the headline in Saturdays paper (“Park access: longterm loss?”), to a lot of people closing state parks would be a bit of a disaster. However, we’re so infuriated at the Park Service for not allowing us to take our little Australian terrier on their trails that the parks are virtually no use to us.

We as geocachers find that many caches are in these parks on the trails. Question, would you park-friendly rangers leave your kids in the car while you cache?

More and more tourists are traveling with their pets and not able to enjoy all the park services our tax dollars are paying for. We stopped at a beautiful little park just south of Brookings, Ore. (Crissey Field State Park), to cache the other day and guess what, our dog was welcomed to come along and helped us find them.

Agree there should be some laws regarding walking dogs on the trails, such as on a leash and carry a poop bag with you, but to deny us the pleasure of walking our pets in the park leaves us not caring one bit if they close the whole system down till California finances get back in shape and there is no more ban on pets.

Bill Horn

Crescent City

We don’t need to redo constitution, we just need to change our leaders

I do not feel we need to redo our state constitution.

We need to change our government leaders. They are not representing the voice of the people. That is why the people voted for no raises until they balance the budget.